So many ways to connect!

Hearth

Hearth is a gathering for dinner and conversation in the home of Brittany Longsdorf, our Multifaith Chaplain. We meet every other Thursday at 6:00 p.m. with one or two prepared queries that the Chaplains and the Fellows craft together in order to spark conversation. The conversation happens in small groups that are facilitated by students who open, lightly guide, and close when an hour has passed. The queries themselves are not limited to religious or spiritual topics and generally lead to bigger discussions, which we welcome wholeheartedly!

Please contact our {Pause} Coordinators if you would like to perform at {Pause}! We welcome musical performers, poetry readers, dancers, and more. We’d also like to experiment more with showing visual art. – E.B. Hall, Mara Stolzenbach, and Lila Patinkin (Winter 2019).

Creative Spirituality

Erin Hazlett-Norman ’19 is the 2018-19 Creative Spirituality Fellow.

Creative Spirituality is a program within the Multifaith Chaplaincy aimed at creating unique, innovative offerings that are not limited to religious or spiritual topics. Creative Spirituality is flexible by design, empowering students with freedom of form and the capacity to address unmet needs within the student body as they arise. Often this takes the form of artistic, creative practices like cooking, singing, dancing, writing, story-telling, or painting in a reflective and contemplative way.

2018-19 Offerings:

Food for the Soul

Food for the Soul is planting, cooking, eating, and talking about the people, places, and foods that make us who we are. There will be monthly meals planned by a student and prepared by anyone with the time to pitch in, and opportunities to work with local farmers in the fall and spring. Local partners include the St. Mary’s Nutrition Center, New Roots Farm and Cultivating Community.

Interfaith Engagement

Facilitated conversations on and off campus that cross boundaries of faith, religion, spirituality, and identity. In the listening and sharing we venture beyond the comfort of the familiar to honor our differences and create space for growth.

Upcoming Programs

Thursday, September 20th, 2019 – 6:00pm, 32 Ware St.

Feeling Weird Back at Bates?

If you’ve been away from the normal Bates routine for any reason (study abroad, semester-long internships, taking time off) you understand that the transition back can feel…challenging, isolating, weird…something just isn’t the same.

Join us for a homemade dinner and student-led reflection on transitioning back to Bates.

Past Interfaith Engagement Programs

Past Interfaith Engagement programming has focused on the following themes:

Multifaith Banquet

An annual festive dinner in celebration of the religious and spiritual diversity of Bates College. Students share stories about a moment or experience that was informed by religious heritage or that informed a spiritual search. Their stories are accompanied by musical offerings and blessings from our Associated Chaplains.

Stringfellow Program

Community and Conversation for Change-Makers

The Stringfellow Program aims to bring William Stringfellow’s values to campus through nurturing a culture of activism at Bates.

This icon of peace activist, human rights lawyer, and theologian William Stringfellow ’49 hangs in Bates’ Peter J. Gomes Chapel. Throughout his life, and beginning at Bates, Stringfellow gained a reputation as a formidable critic of the social, military and economic policies of our country and as a tireless advocate for racial and social justice.

The Stringfellow program works to connect activist students and alumni, support students engaged in activism, and raise awareness of current and past activism on campus. Some recent programs have included:

Multifaith Chaplaincy Stringfellow Coordinators Maddi McKay ’18 and Max Silverman ’16 moderating a MLK Day panel and workshop: Deconstructing “Criminal”: Power and Complacency in American Incarceration and in Our Community.

Bi-annual Study Retreat:

A day long retreat that creates an academic community for intentional studying before finals. Join in for meals, accountability check ins, labyrinth walking, intensive study time, meditation, and study break fun. This retreat is free of cost and includes approx 8 hours for self-guided studying!